She heads the not-so-surprising team that could create a sensation in this Ligue 1. Winner in Bordeaux on Wednesday (3-0), Lille retains the lead in the championship with only two losses recorded since the start of the season and remains competing in the Europa League, where he will face Ajax Amsterdam in the round of 16.
Sports success linked to several factors.
Explanations.
A buy-sell policy pushed to the limit
There was Monaco, and its huge capital gains at the end of the 2010s. Then there was Losc, another French club to have specialized in the field of trading, a method which consists of recruiting promising players with a view to then reselling them much more expensive.
A man in common: Luis Campos.
The Portuguese, former sports advisor then sports director on the Rock, then officiated alongside Gérard Lopez, owner of the Losc from 2017 to 2020. With him, the Spanish-Luxembourg businessman managed the two biggest sales of Ligue 1 during the last two summer transfer windows: the departures of attackers Nicolas Pépé (80 million, Arsenal) and Victor Osimhen (70 million, Naples).
A model supposed to ensure sporting growth, the club has gone from 120 to 147 million euros in budget this summer, but not only.
“In the case of Lille, the club was bought and financed by debt, explains Jérémie Bastien, lecturer in economics at the University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne.
Trading was used to pay off part of Losc's debt.
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But in December, the main backer of the leader of Ligue 1, the American investment fund Eliott Management, said stop, estimating that Lopez would not be able to repay the approximately 200 million euros of debt.
The club was bought by the investment fund Merlyn Partners, which injected 50 million euros into the club and appointed former PSG leader Olivier Létang as president.
The latter promised a return to a more classic model.
“It seems complicated to me to change it in the short term,” says Jérémie Bastien.
The club will have to face the probable drop in TV rights, does not have a ticket office with health constraints and the crisis complicates the possibility of playing on sponsorship.
"If a club offers 80 million euros for one of our players, I guarantee it, he will leave", recently underlined the Lille coach, Christophe Galtier.
Recruitment finds
It's called Scouting System Pro, and makes many clubs salivate.
Luis Campos' highly coveted database and his very dense network have enabled the northern club to multiply the successes in recent years.
“When Lille de Lopez bought a promising player, they knew his lifespan at the club was a season, or even two.
When they take someone, they are already in the perspective of replacing him, describes the former Losc player and consultant for the L'Equipe channel, Ludovic Obraniak.
They did a painstaking job that has no equivalent in France.
The Turks Yazici, Celik and Yilmaz, the Croatian Bradaric, the Dutch Botman: the Losc is partly based on a foreign legion, recruited in the secondary championships.
Like Victor Osimhen before him, Canadian center forward Jonathan David was bought from a Belgian club.
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“Lille knows how to go to parallel markets, where there are players who are not necessarily the first choices, analyzes recruiter Antonio Salamanca.
Gabriel left for 25million at Arsenal, they went for Botman at Ajax.
It costs 8 million, many French clubs would not have gone to look for it at that price.
But Lille decided to bet part of Gabriel's sale on it, and it worked out very well.
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But, here too, the Losc will have to rebuild.
Campos gone, Olivier Létang is now working to rebuild a recruitment unit, this time internally.
A time at the head of Sports Invest UK after his departure from PSG, the ex-president of Rennes has a background of agents and also a substantial network.
A successful coach
The scorers pass, the coach stays.
Arrived at the end of 2017 to succeed Marcelo Bielsa at the head of a drifting team, Christophe Galtier allowed Lille to finish second in PSG and regain the Champions League in 2019 and put him in a position to compete for the title at Paris and OL this season.
“Its role is major,” emphasizes Ludovic Obraniak.
He is the conductor of this project.
The difficulty with his squad was to find the right associations, especially in attack.
He has succeeded in setting up an efficient turnover, everyone is there.
His thing is his side which is both paternalistic and Father Fouettard.
He gives his shirt for his players, but is also able to take them back if necessary.
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Professionally at ease with Luis Campos, the technician suffered from the Portuguese's distance at the start of the season and openly complained about it. If the new leaders have announced their desire to bet on the one who still has a lease of one and a half years, will it be compatible with this new organization? His name is mentioned on the side of OL, where Rudi Garcia has not yet extended, and comes back regularly when we talk about Marseille, where he is from. But, for now, it's in the North that Galtier dominates Ligue 1.